Flip has caused a splash with its range pocketable video cameras, and now it has launched an HD version of the Mino with 4GB of memory for $229.99. It's enough to shoot for an hour in 1280 x 720 widescreen in H.264 (MP4) format, where previous models used MPEG-4 avi. That is almost certainly more Mac-friendly (always depending on the H.264 profile used -- which isn't specified in Flip's Mino HD spec sheet).

Flip also claims the Mino HD is "the first and only 'designable' HD camcorder," but at the moment, it seems to be in any colour you like as long as it's black.

It's another very simplified product -- fixed focus lens, no optical zoom, no SD slot and so on -- but it's designed for point-and-shoot use, not for filming the next Bond movie. (You'd want at least a Sony TG3 Handycam for that. It does 1920 x 1080 and has a 10x zoom.)

The obvious rival is the Kodak Zi6 (£130), which we just compared with the Flip Mino in Technophile. The Zi6 has a higher spec but the Flip is smaller and more usable.

The drawback for UK users is that we have no idea when the Mino HD will arrive, and the US version has NTSC, not PAL, for the TV output.